Process of imitating brick in miniature models



March 31. 1925.

A. JENNINGS ET AL PROCESS OF IMITATING BRICK IN MINIATURE MODELS FiledFeb. 7. 192,4 -2'Sheets-Sheet 1 March 31. 1925. 1,531,789 A. JENNINGS ETAL PROCESS OF IMITATING BRICK IN MINIATURE MODELS I Filed Feb. .7. 1924z Sheets-511661. g

JJQVENTQRS.

Patented Mar. 31,1925.

ALLEN JENNINGS AND HELEN JEN INGS, or cHAGRIN FALLS/0111c.

PROCESS OF IMITATING BRICK IN MINIATURE MODELS.

Application filed February 7, 1924. SeriaiNo. 691,320.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, ALLEN JENNINcs and HELEN JENNINGS, citizens of theUnited States, residing a Chagrin Falls, county of Cuyahoga, and Stateof Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Processesof Imitating Brick in Miniature Models, of which the following is afull, clear, and exact description, reference being had to theaccompanying drawings.

The practice of those engaged in the building arts, particularlyarchitects and those engaged in the building material business.

such as brick and tile manufacturers, is to .have models of dwellingsand buildings reproduced in miniature which embody and set out thefeatures or products in which they are most interested. For instance, ifan architect is having a model built, the general design and'outwardappearance of the miniature is what he would be the most interested inand in this instance, the manner of reproducing the outward appearanceof a'dwelling, particularly of a dwelling having stucco or brick walls,in miniature, becomes of major importance when consideration is given tothe cost of the model in relation to its utility.

,, The general object of the present invention, therefore, is theprovision of a process for reproducing the outer appearance of brick andtile wall structures. whereby various textures and colors of brick, tileand J stucco may-be accurately reproduced in miniature models ofdwellings and buildings.

Our invention contemplates the use of pigs ments ground in a suitablevehicle such as oil, which may become partly oxidized or congealedwhereby a thick gummy mass may be obtained which may be applied to asupporting medium such as wood. fiber board and the like. In reproducingbrick or tile in miniature, the chosen supporting medium is preferablywooden slabs or boards of a thickness corresponding to the thickness ofwall in the miniature model. These slabs may be first grooved to produceslots in the surface thereof, spaced apart to correspond to horizontalmortar beds and vertical mortar I joints of the brick or tile. Thepigment of .brick'; Fig. 11 is a cross-sectional View;

coating may then be applied thereover and subsequently scored or groovedcoincident with the underlying grooves or slots in the supportingmedium.

ing parallel grooves and intermittent transverse parallel grooves in theapplied pigments in spaced relation to correspond tothe miniaturedimensions of each brick or' tile in the wall and thereby reproduce orimitate the horizontal and vertical mortar beds of the brick wall inminiature.

Other objects of our invention will hereinafter be set forth in thefollowing description of our processa-nd of'the accompanying drawingsillustrating a preferred apparatus for carrying out the steps thereof.The essential characteristics of our invention is summarized in theclaims.

Fig. 1 of the drawings is a plan view of an apparatus for formingparallel grooves in a pigment supporting medium, preferably wood orboard; Fig. 2 is a fragmentary cross-v sectional view takensubstantially along the line 22 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 .is a fragmentarycross-sectional elevation taken substantially along the line 33 of Fig.1; Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a rotary tool for use in an apparatussuch as is disclosed in Figs. 1 and 3 and which is specifically for thepurpose of forming alternate scores in the pigment supporting medium;Fig. 5 is a ,crosssectional fragmentary plan view showing the use of thetool illustrated in Fig. 4; Fig. 6 is a corner. fragment of a scoredpigment supporting slab; Fig. 7 is an enlarged fragmentary perspectiveview of the slabpiece shown in Fig. 6 with the pigment coating appliedthereto; Fig. 8-is a detailed crosssectional view showing the manner ofscoring the pigment when once applied to the score slab; Fig. 9 shows analternate method of forming the scores in the pigment when on the slab;Fig. 10 isa view similar to 8, showing, however, the use of a toolperforming intermittent or broken scores in IOU the pigment, whichscores correspond to the vertical mortar joints in each horizontal rowsimilar to Fig; 3 showing the use of a plurality of such tools as areillustrated in Fig. 10; Fig. 12 is a perspective view of an alternateform of tool for manually forming the intermittent scores in the pigmentand slabs;

Fig. 13 is a diagrammatic representation of the scores or slots formedin a plastic supporting medium.

In carrying out the objects of our invention, we provide a methodwhereby a miniature reproduction of'brick and stucco may be obtainedwhich may be of a color to correspond to the textures of brick orstucco, provi ion being made to reproduce either rough brick, scoredbrick, finished brick or glazed brick, and wherein we may usecompositions of pigments ground in oil, and which may be mixed plain orused in combination with sand, gravel, clay or powdered marble. Themixture may be worked up to the consistency of astiff putty whence itmay be applied to a supporting medium in the nature of a scored slab,preferably a wooden board ,4 thick, which dimension corresponds to thethickness of a 12 wall on a one inch to the foot scale. Various plasticcoatings may be mixed which are applicable to one model. For instance,where the model is a miniature of a proposed dwelling having an exteriorfinish of stucco with a brick trimor stucco with a stone trim, thecombinatlons' would comprise a plastic pigment of a color and texturecorresponding to the particular kind of brick chosen'for the trim in thebuilding, which. may be any type of brick and the stucco would comprisea pigment of corresponding color and general texture to that of cementor stucco finish of the building.

Miniature dwellings or models have been made wherein the-walls compriseplaster of Paris having the exterior thereof grooved or scored to formscores corresponding to the horizontal and vertical mortar joints ofcourses of brick. A particular advantage in our method, however, is thatwe obtain the advantage of a scored pigment supporting medium which weprefer to form of wood with apparatus such as is disclosed in thedrawings. We find that by forming the horizontal mortar bed scores orthe scores corresponding to the horizontal mortar beds in the 'walltransversely of the grain of the board, they may be formed veryeconomically by the use of small circular milling saws mounted on anordinary milling machine. The scores running transversely of the grainare spaced apart a distance. corresponding to the length of brick, ortile and are intermittent and staggered to represent the interbindingjoints of the brick in overlying courses in the wall. \Ve may thuseffect this scoring in a very satisfactory manner by special formingtools which depress portions of the wood thus forming intermittentgrooves which extend in the common direction of the grain of the woodand a clean cut score is effected without causmg a tearing orsplintering of the groove edges.

It will be readily understood that the grooves 15 may be formed, asillustrated in Figs. 1 to 8 inclusive, by positioning the board 15 in aholder or frame 20, the frame may be provided with any convenient meansfor securing the slab 16 thereto, and as shown in Fig. 1, a bar 21 isprovided which may be maintained in clamped engagement with an. edge ofthe boardby screw members 22. This frame is of such shape and size as tobe conveniently mounted upon a bed 24 of a milling machine or similarmachine suitable for the purpose of rotating small circular saws 25. Asshown may connect the arbor 26 to the disc 34: of

the machine spindle 35.whereby the saws may be rotated at a proper speedto mill the slots 15 in the board when the latter is moved therebeneathby the machine bed 24 and frame 20. Any suitable means for properlymaintaing' the saws in rigid relation to the supporting arbor 26 may beprovided, a preferred means comprising 1 key 36. In forming thetransverse or intermittent slots 17, we prefer to use a tool incombination with the supporting frame 20 and arbor26 which may comprisedisc members 38 mounted upon the arbor 26 with spacing rings 39positioned therebewteen which are of a width corresponding to one halfthe length of the miniature brick spacing as shown in Fig. 13. The discs38 have the peripheries thereof notched to provide projecting lugs 10and the key-ways in these disc members are so formed that the discs maybe positioned upon the mandrel 26, with alternate discs having the lugsthereof in alignment. When using this tool, it may be -mounted in amilling machine as hereinhave been previously formed by the milling 7operation now extend parallel with the man drel, so that when the lugs40 of the discs 38 are brought into a compressive relation with the topsurface of the board 16 carried by the frame member, the gear 43 maymesh with the teeth of the rack 42 in such manner that the lugs 40 onalternate discs will form scores or grooves as shown in Fig. 5 bydepressing portions of the wood panels. The lugs 40 thus make averyclean cut groove, due to the fact that the discs 38 move in the samedirection as the grain of the wood. It is to be understood, however,that if desired, the use of the discs 38 may be omitted and the boa-rdmilled or grooved as shown in Fig.6.

After the board is grooved in the manner shown in Figs. 1 and 5, it maythen be coated with the selected pigments such as have beenhereinbefore' described. In Figs. 7, a section of the board is shown as.being coated with a plastic material 50 to represent a rough bri'cksurface. The-board when thus coated, is permitted to stand for a day ortwo until the surfacing 50 has sufficiently set to be cut or scored. Theboard may then be placed again in the.frame 20 and the longitudinalslots milled in the coating as shown in Fig. 8, the board, of course,being adjusted relative to the cutters. on the mandrel 26 whereby thecutters will be in alignment with the previously formed grooves in theunderlying supporting medium or board. If desired, plain discmembers'fil, as shown in Fig. 9, may be mounted upon the mandrel -26 andmay then roll or shear thin ribbons of the coating material 50, causingthese ribbons to be positioned at the bottom of the previously formedgrooves 15 thus forming pigment grooves, 15, .in the coating. which arecoincident with the mill grooves in theboard.

The frame and board may then be shifted in the machine and the discmembers 38 may then again be mounted upon the mandrel 26 whereuponproper registration of the lugs 40 with the intermittently formed slotsextending with the grain of the board conditions the apparatus for the"formation of slots in the coating 50 which correspond to the verticalmortar joints between the brick.

As shown in Fig. 10 the lugs 40 of the disc 38 will depress shortribbons of the coating into the previously formed short slots in theboard. This operation is effected by manually turning the spindle 35 inthe manner hereinbefore. described.

In Fig.'12 we show an alternate form of apparatus for effecting theformation of the short slots in the coating, the continuous slots havingpreviously been formed by a milling operation in the manner shown inFigs. 8 or v9. In the use of this device, a

' frame comprises a support for the coated board 16 while a manuallymanipulated upon the manual advancing of the bar 62 from one set ofslots 63 to another, the bar may be shifted longitudinally, upon the for.mat'ion of each succeeding row of slots, a

distance corresponding to the width between the longitudinal slots.

If desired, all milling-and rolling operations may be eliminated ineffecting the groovingof the coating 50 after it has been applied to theslotted surface of the board. In the latter case, however, the board maybe milled both longitudinally and transversely as shown in Fig. 6 toform rectangles which have a length corresponding to half the lengthof abrick. It will thus be seen that when forming the grooves in the coatingby the use, say, of an apparatus such as shown in Fig. 12, thelongitudinal or continuous slots may be formed by a bar having anunnotched edge by simply. compressmg the coating into the slots formedin the sponding to the slot portions 64'. e find that such an apparatusis serviceable for all brick reproductions excepting glazed bricksincethe proper effect of a glazed coating would be defective, due tothe fact that'the coating when applied flows into the slots formed inthe board and would show in dications of the slot portions 64, eventhough the coating had not been scored immediately over these slotportions. This may be readily understood by referring to Fig. 13 whereinthe grooves 15, which correspond to the horizontal mortar beds of thebrick wall, are shown as being formed transversely ofthe grain of theboard or slab 16, while the grooves 17 extend longitudinally of the Informing the short slots in the grain and are intermittent or alternatelystaggered to represent the vertical mortar *or slots in the surfacethereof which correspond to the horizontal mortar beds and verticalmortar joints of the wall to be imiform to the slotted surface of saidsupporting medium, drying the plastic material when so applied andremoving those portions of the plastic material which lie immediatelyover the scores or slots formed in the. supporting medium to formconfiguratated, applying said material while in plastic tions thereincorresponding to the miniature shape of the exposed surface of a brickor a mortar joints between the brick in the wall,

applying,pigment coatings to the scored surface of the board which intexture correspond to the texture of the bricks to be represented andremoving those portions of the coatings which lie immediately over thescores-in the board and filling the slots formed by such removed with aplastic material which is appearance is representative of the mortar inthe horizontal mortar beds and vertical mortar joints of a brick wall,

3. A process of imitating the outer appearance of a brick building wallin miniature Which comprises forming a plastic mass from material havinga general texture corxresponding to thetexture of the brick to beimitated, applying said material while in plastic form to a solidsupporting medium and scoring the plastic material to formconfigurations therein corresponding to the miniature shape of theexposed surface of thebrick.

l. A method of imitating the outer appearance of a building wall inminiature which comprises forming a. plastic mass from material having ageneral texture corresponding to the texture'of the material Y beingimitated, scoring the surface of a plastic supporting medium, by forminggrooves or slots in the surface thereof which correspond to thehorizontal mortar beds and vertical mortar joints of the wall to beimitated, applying rSELlCl material while in plastic form to the slottedsurface of said supporting medium,.drying the plastic .material when soapplied and removing those portions of the plastic material which lieimmediately over the scores or slots formed in the supporting medium toform configurations therein corresponding to the miniature shape-of theexposed surfaceof a brick or tile when in a wall and filling said slotwith a material of a texture and color corresponding to the texture andcolor of the mortar beds in the brick wall to be imitated.

5. A method of imitating the outer appearance of a brick wall whichcomprises forming slots in a surface of a plastic supporting board, theslots-being proportioned and spaced relative to each other so as torepresent the mortar joints between the brick in the wall, applyingcoatings to the scored surface of the board, which in texturecorresponds to the texture of the bricks to be represented and removingthose portions of the coatings which lie immediately over the scores inthe board.

6. The process of imitating the outer appearance of a building wall inminiature which comprises scoring the surface of a plastic supportingmedium by forming grooves. therein horizontally and transversely of themedium, the spacing of the grooves being such as to correspond to thehorizontal mortar beds and vertical mortarjoints of the wall 'to beimitated, preparing a plastic medium by including the use of a pigmentwhich, when mixed in the plastic material will impart a color thereto,

-7. A process of imitating the outer ap-' pearance of a building wall inminiature which comprises forming a plastic mass of a material having ageneral texture corresponding to the texture of the brick or tile to beimitated, applying said material while in a plastic condition to a solidsupporting medium and treating the surface of the plastic material withfine sand one like material to give it a surface correspondi i Y to thesurface of the material in the wall being imitated.

.8. The process of imitating the outer appearance of a building wall inminiature which comprises milling equidistantly spaced apart grooves inthe surface of the plastic supporting medium, forming intermittenttransverse grooves therein, applying plastic material to the groovedsurface of the supporting medium, drying'the plastic material afterbeing applied, removing those portions of the material which lie overthe parallel continuous grooves by a milling operation and removingthose portions of the plastic material which lie over the intermittentgrooves by depressing those portions-into the intermittent groovesformed in the plastic supporting-medium. 9. The method of imitating theouter appearance of a building wall in miniature which includes thesteps of forming a plastic mass from materialwhich will have a tex-j Icontinuous parallel'extending grooves which extend transversely of thegrain of theboard, forming intermittent grooves transversely of theparallel grooves by makingdepressions therein which extend parallel withthe grain of the board, applying the. plastic material to the board whenso scored, removing those portions of the plastic material lying overthe grooves by the same milling and depressing operations whicheffeetthe formation of the grooves in the board.

10. The process of imitating the outer appearance of a building wall inminiature which comprises scoring the surface of a plastic supportingmedium by forming grooves therein horizontally and transversely of themedium, the spacing of the grooves being such as to correspond to thehorizontal mortar beds and vertical mortar joints of the wall to beimitated, prepar ing a plastic medium by including the use of a pigmentwhich, when mixed in the plastic material, will impart a color thereto,corresponding to the color of the tile or brick in the wall to beimitated, applying said plastic material to the scored surface of saidplastic supporting medium by spreading it over the grooves andintermediate surfaces thereof, treating said plastic material when soapplied to give it a texture corresponding to the texture of the tile orbrick in the wall being imitated, removing those portions of the plasticmaterial which lie over the grooves formed in the supporting medium andfilling the grooves with a material which will impart the appearance ofmortar thereto.

11. A process of imitating the outer appearance of a building wall inminiature which comprises forming a plastic mass of an oil and pigmenthaving a general texture corresponding to the-texture of the wall to beimitated, applying said material while in plastic condition to a solidsupporting medium and treating .the surface of the plastic material togive it a physi cal appearance corresponding to the physical appearanceof the material in the wall being imitated. r

12. The process of imitating the outer z'xppearance of a building wallin miniature which comprises milling equidistantly spaced apart groovesin the surface of the plastic srqpporting medium, forming inter-,

appearance of a building wall in miniat-ure which includes the steps offorming a plastic mass from material which will have a texturecorresponding to thetexture of the. material to be imitated in the wall,scoring a board by a milling opera-- tion to form continuous parallelextending grooves which extend transversely of the grain of the board,forming intermittent grooves transversely of the parallel grooves,

by forming depressions which extend parallel with the grain of theboard, applying the plastic material of the board when so scored,removing those portions of the plastic material from the outer plainthereof by the same milling and depressing operation which effects theformation of the grooves in the board, and applving a material to thegrooves which will be representative of the mortar joints in the wall.In testimony whereof, we hereunto aflix our signatures.

ALLEN JENNINGS. HELEN JENNINGS.

